Caribbean sailing

Friday April 27.

This episode is being written while I am bobbing on our yacht on another beautiful day in a gorgeous little bay. The others have all gone to do their own thing (Chris is walking on the beach, Ashley is taking photos of the bay and Keith and Kathryn are snorkeling). I am just chilling in the heat feeling the breeze blow over the deck while looking at the islands across the channel.

We have been sailing for a few days now and each day has been fantastic. Generally speaking, the days have been about 26 degrees with an east/southeast wind around 15 knots and flat seas enabling us to get the sails up every day. Perfect. The skies have had a few clouds in them now and again but last night was the only time we scored any rain. Just about every place we go seems to be better than the previous and all are worthy of postcard status. Yesterday afternoon we did a fly-by of Necker island (owned by Richard Branson) and it is a slice of paradise. There is a little sandy cay in front of it with two fake palm trees on it, and from a distance it looks like the stereotypical deserted island. Keith had a go at getting his kiteboarding happening the but there wasn't enough wind.

This morning we sailed out of our anchorage and put the sails up for a couple of hours or so. The wind was a bit stronger (around 20 knots) and the seas had come up a bit (probably a couple of metres) so we had a nice fast, if not bumpy, ride. At one stage we were doing about 8.5 knots consistently with only two thirds of the jib out and the mainsail on the first reef. Fantastic! There are some magnificent watercraft to behold here ranging from the normal things you would see in the Whitsundays to gorgeous ketches, sloops and catamarans, some up to 120 feet long. And the power launches would make James Bond envious.

The other night we tried to moor at White Bay on Jost Van Dyke in order to go to the Soggy Dollar bar to drink some Painkillers. Unfortunately there were no moorings left so we had to choof off to a different spot. If I have any criticism of the BVI from a sailing perspective it is that there are not enough anchorages for the amount of vessels that want them. The popular spots fill up early in the day so you have to keep going until your find somewhere else. A lot of the cays/bays have moorings but they cost about $30 a night and anchoring is not permitted. So far we have done a 50/50 mix of mooring and anchoring.

Sometime today we have to try and find a cafe/restaurant/pub with power so we can recharge our phones, cameras, computers and iPads. The yacht doesn't have an inverter, and that has caught us out. At the moment, only the iPads have power remaining and they are running low. Consequently, I am writing this report ready for a quick transmission when we find some wifi hotspot.




And this be what a pirate may have seen in days of yore when he sailed passed Sandy Cay!

Location:Cooper Bay, British Virgin Isalnds

On board

Hiho me hearties,
We be on board our ship and be settling in for the evening. We have packed our provisions aboard and downed one G&T already. Keith is currently in the galley cooking some dinner (chicken curry and rice) so soon it will be feedin' time. We have met a few people here on the dock who have just brought their boat back and are finishing their sailing and several have given us their unused provisions including, wine, beer, water and fishing gear. So now we have extra stock. Not that I think we will need it because we appear to have plenty.

The weather forecast for the next few days is 'perfect and improving' with southeast winds at 15 ish knots. Our boat is a Jeanneau 44i if you want to google it. We have already hoisted out boxing kangaroo and Australian flag and tomorrow we will fly the jolly roger once we are under way.

Yesterday, in Australia, and today, in BVI, was/is Keith's birthday so we loaded him up with pirate pressies.

So how do you know you're a pirate?

You just aargh!



The motley crew. Ash, me, Chris, Keith and Kathryn.



Discussing drinking tactics over lots of $2.00 G&Ts.



Here be pirates.

Location:Sunsail dock,Waterfront Drive,Road Town,British Virgin Islands

BVI

Yes! We are here!
Left Puerto Rico this morning for The British Virgin Islands and have spent the day wandering around and drinking lots of very cheap G&Ts. We met up with with Keith and Kathryn Prest today (we are going sailing in the Caribbean with these guys) and have had a great time catching up. Tomorrow we start the sailing adventure and hop onto our boat for ten days of sailing around the Caribbean.

But before this I need to tell you what we have done in Puerto Rico since the last blog... Before we left Ponce we went to a museum of Puerto Rican music. It was full of all sorts of latin american musical instruments including several had never even heard of. Then it was off to the Arecibo radiotelescope and it was amazing. It is so big! That night we drove through some ridiculously windy roads in order to get to our hotel. Chris did the driving and she is very good at driving on the wrong side of the road, just like in Australia. We stayed in some back-hills in a very mountainous part of Puerto Rico in an old coffee plantation called Casa Grande. Not a very original name I grant you, but there you have it. Ashley and I went for a bit of a walk down the road and ended up chatting wit a local guy called Noel who gave us the I story of the area. The people here always seem to be open for a chat.

The next morning we drove a couple of hours to do a cave tour in a huge cave called Cueva Clara and it was absolutely amazing. The cave was full of stalactites and stalagmites and was over a million years old. Just astounding. After that we had to drive back to our hotel at the airport ready for the flight in the morning and I have never, ever been in such a long, packed line of peak our traffic. It took us about two hours to go the last 25 kilometers to the airport and by the time we got there we had had enough. So we went to the bar and had more G&Ts with dinner.

So, tomorrow begins the next adventure. We will be spending the next ten days sailing around the Caribbean on our 44 foot yacht. Consequently there may not be much blogging going on because we may not have access to the Internet.




This is a cool chook guitar in the music museum.



The radiotelescope at Arecibo where they filmed part of the Bond movie 'Goldeneye'.







View from our room at the Casa Grande.



Piña Colada at the Casa Grande. Mmmmm.



Stalactites in Cueva Clara.



A hint of things to come! i.e. tomorrow.



Let the drinking begin. In Tortula in the British Virgin Islands waiting for the first G&T.



Love the name. VERY strong G&Ts here cost $2.00. Between us we went through 16 of them tonight.

Location:Nibbs St,Road Town,British Virgin Islands

San Juan to Ponce

Been a pretty good couple of days in Puerto Rico so far.

Monday - After leaving old San Juan we picked up a hire car and headed east for Ceiba. On this day I did the driving and it is a bit unnerving driving on the wrong side of the road through an unfamiliar city and skinny mountain roads. On the way to Ceiba we drove up the mountains to a national park and went for a hike to a waterfall called La Mina. The trek was quite steep at times but the scenery was spectacular. After that it was off to our B&B to get organized for the nighttime activities. We had booked a dusk kayak excursion into an isolated mangrove lagoon called Bio Bay. After about 15 minutes of paddling we were in a huge lagoon where the water contains microorganisms that glow when disturbed by the paddles, kayaks, your fingers, hands, feet, etc. By the time we arrived there it was dark and the effect was spectacular. About 20 minutes later we paddled back through the canopy of mangroves to the beach. A most magnificent outing.

Tuesday - Today we were all up in time to watch the sunrise over the Caribbean. It was gorgeous. I don't have any pictures to post because Ashley took heaps on his camera and I haven't downloaded them to my iPad yet. Today was also Chris' turn to drive (hooray). We headed south using the freeway and older coast roads. Many times we were right along side the Caribbean with spectacular views to the horizon and up and down the coast. For lunch we went off the track to a little town called Salinas and found a pub/restaurant that literally butted up to the ocean. The food was fantastic; Chris had a conch mofongo (a mofongo is a sort of pastry made from cooked, mashed-up plantains and garlic molded into a soft shell that is filled with whatever you order), Ashley ordered chicken stuffed with seafood rice (and got an entire chook), and I ordered prawns wrapped in bacon (Ash called them devils on sea-horseback). After lunch we headed to Ponce on the south coast to settle in to our hotel. But of course it did not go smoothly. Ponce is a biggish city with lots of one-way streets, so we worked out our route and headed in. However, there are roadworks on one of the streets we had selected so we had to change plans and find an alternate route. The roads here are about one car width wide and chokka with cars. We got to the hotel in the end but it took us about 30 minutes longer under stressful conditions. Chris did extremely well driving under those circumstances.

After settling in to our room we wandered round Ponce for a while but there was not much to see, just about everything is shut on Tuesdays so we are going to try again tomorrow. For the evening we had a few drinks and chatted to the locals (who were very keen to chat!), had some dinner and then came back to our hotel room.

Tomorrow we are off to Arecibo to see the world's largest single aperture radio telescope. You may have seen it in the James Bond movie Goldeneye.

But for now it is goodnight.



Driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.



Lace leaves on a tree in the national park.



La Mina falls.



Some of the steps on the track to the falls.



Ashley's chicken stuffed with seafood rice.



My Devils on Sea-horseback..



Chris' conch mofongo.



View to the right from our table at the restaurant.



These seagulls were on all the posts just to the left of our table.



View from our hotel window in Ponce.



And finally, this sign is in our hotel. It's nice to know we will be safe should such an emergency eventuate!

Location:Calle Plaza Degetau, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Guatemala to Puerto Rico

I never seem to be short of material for this blog when it comes to interesting challenges.

Yesterday we flew out of Guatemala to Puerto Rico. The flight had to go via Miami and, while the Guatemala section was OK, Miami was a nightmare. We were only in-transit through Miami but the good ol' US of A won't let you transfer in a transit lounge, you have to go through passport control, pick up your luggage, go through customs, re-enter through security, put your luggage back onto a drop-off trolley and get to your departure gate. This whole process took us nearly two hours! At one stage we thought we had lost one of our bags because it didn't turn up on the carousel. It finally arrived about 1.5 hours after the plane had landed and we think it had been opened by the TSA. We had put things we wanted to declare into this bag including a packet of coffee and a packet of chocolate drinking powder. When we checked the contents of the bag we noticed that both of these packets had been opened, so we think it may have been scanned and that the TSA had checked what the contents were. However, we were a bit annoyed that there was no sticker or something that said it had been opened, and they had not made any attempt to reseal the coffee and chocolate so it was loose and spilling the bag.

Now for the transit process. From the plane to immigration was about a 10 minute walk (Miami airport is huge) to a shuttle/train which took us to a station where we had to walk for another 5 minutes to get to passport control. Once there we lined up for half an hour to get through. The we had to walk another 10 minutes to the baggage carousel and go through customs. From customs it was another 10 minute walk to drop off the baggage then jump back on the train to where we originally came from. After that it was another 10 minute walk to the departure lounge. All in all, an absolutely insane and convoluted nightmare.

The flight was uneventful except for one pretty cool aside. We were laughing and chatting with the chief steward about Aussie Rules footy and later he gave us a couple of free G&Ts. Excellent!

Once at Puerto Rico we had a 45 minute wait until Ashley's flight arrived from Dallas. He had just done the flights from Melbourne to San Juan and was pretty knackered. We then took a cab to the hotel, went a couple of doors down for pizza and beer, returned to the hotel and crashed.

Today (Sunday) we went exploring the old city forts and generally had a great day. Puerto Rico is very different to Guatemala, everything is so clean and organised and you can drink tap water!



A view of the old fort from the 'new' fort. The ocean is the Caribbean. This is real pirate territory.



On either side of this port mouth is a fort. If an enemy tried to sail into the harbour the Spanish could fire on them from both sides.



Streetscape in old San Juan.



This statue has stars on it. For those of you who are Dr. Seuss fans it made me think of a star bellied sneetch.



And this is a shot of what's on our bedside table. Three servings of fruit.
Banana, chocolate orange and strawberry air freshener.

Location:Calle Fortaleza,San Juan,Puerto Rico

Tikal

Wow.
This place (Tikal) was recommended to us by everyone and it did not disappoint. We had to get up at 3:30 am in Antigua and catch a shuttle to Guatemala City airport (about an hour away) then take a one hour flight to Flores followed by another one hour shuttle ride to Tikal. There was one scary incident where I thought I had lost my passport in Guatemala City airport but after lots of talking with officials and running around (literally) it was found in an external rear pocket of my backpack that I have NEVER used before. Much relief.

Anyway, we have spent the last two days in the middle of the jungle right next to the ruins of a Mayan city. There are temples, homes, offices and all sorts of stone edifices here of which some date back over two thousand years. On the first day we climbed to the top of a temple and saw the sunset then the next morning at 4:00 we climbed up another temple and watched the sunrise. Because we were in the jungle before the animals woke up we got to hear all sorts of noises as the day began such as howler monkeys and different birds. We also saw pizotes and toucans but no star bellied sneetches. And in total we spent about 7 hours exploring the ruins.

After Tikal we shuttled back to Flores and spent about four hours just wandering around the island and drinking cheap mojitos. Really cheap... $1.50 each. And damn good ones too! The island of Flores is really tiny and you can stroll around it in about 15-20 minutes. It is situated in the middle of a lake and stacked with very pretty coloured buildings. Real postcard stuff.

At the moment we are sitting in the Flores airport waiting for our flight to Guatemala City and then it is back to Antigua. When we arrive we have to pack ready for the morning trek back to Guatemala City in order to fly out to Puerto Rico.

The morning before I left Australia I took some sunrise photos and now that I am leaving Guatemala I have some sunset photos. Fantastic!

So, this is my last blog from Guatemala.

¡Adiós y gracias por todo el pescado!



One of the temples.



Some ruins.



Sunset.



Sunrise.



Lunch in Flores.



Boats moored waiting to take people across the lake.

Location:Tikal, Peten, Guatemala

Important announcement!

Need to thank Caitie for sending over chocolate Easter eggs. The chocolate here is pretty average (tastes a lot like that compound muck) so proper chocolate was a real treat.
Thanks sweetie!

Location:Belly

Around Antigua.

Antigua sure is a lot more upmarket than Xela! A lot more touristy and expensive too. However, there are a lot of interesting things to see here. But let's start with the trip from Panajachel yesterday.

We were picked up from our hotel exactly on time as per our booking. The trip took about 2 hours and was uneventful, passing through a couple of towns that we hadn't been through going to Xela. The mountains in Guatemala are so steep and ubiquitous that going anywhere takes a long time.

When we arrived at our posada in Antigua we dumped our stuff and headed into the centre of town (only two blocks away) for a bit of a squiz. Being your typical Spanish setup there is a main park with a church and town hall facing it. The thing about the OLD buildings here is that they were nearly all destroyed in a big earthquake in the 1700s. So we had a bit of a look at some of the churches, markets and then went back to the posada to unpack and get settled in. Later in the evening we went out for dinner to a nice little restaurant around the corner (literally) where a local musician played some fantastic latin songs on his guitar.

Next day (today - Wednesday) we went on another ruins-walk, had lunch, did more walking then ate some chocolate.

Tomorrow we are flying to Tikal for two days to see the Mayan ruins. Our shuttle service leaves the posada at 4:00 am so it will have to be an early night methinks.



This is the old Capitanes Generales quarters facing the main square.



These ladies are washing clothes at an outdoor washery that faces a little park.



This lady was washing clothes in this basin while her baby was in the one to her left being washed in that.



Great singer/guitarist doing all Latin songs.



A very tasty mouthful from Argentina (the wine, not Chrissy). Just perfect for listening to Latin music.



This ruined church is right next door to our posada.



Another market. They really hassle you here. Very annoying!



Another earthquake-destroyed church.



These are the doorways into the cells of a convent. They are set in a semicircle and if you stand in the middle and talk normally your voice carries to the back of each cell. Quite amazing.



And finally, my lunch. I ordered a plate of nachos and this is what they brought me. I couldn't finish it.

Location:Antigua, Guatemala

Xela to Panajachel

Here we are in Panajachel. We arrived yesterday, which was Easter Saturday, and the place was insane. Thousands of people crushing around us filling every square centimetre of space and so much noise that it drove us batty. Every shop, bar, restaurant and hotel was competing for 'musical' dominance. Add to that the constant touting and hassling of the street vendors and the whole scene became a cacophony. Neither of us really liked that very much.

The trip here from Xela was an interesting experience too. Because Guatemala pretty much shuts down for Easter (except for Panajachel) our shuttle was replaced by a driver with his own car. He also had two ladies from Canada that he had to drop off halfway to Panajachel and we had to fit all of our suitcases (5 of them) plus back packs into his car. So, all that luggage plus five people was a bit cosy. When I did this trip last time to work at the hospitalito it took two hours, but because it is Easter and Sololá (one of the towns we had to go through) had a market on, and there were so many people heading to Panajachel, it took a bit over four hours. We got there OK but our driver, Byron, was pretty stressed out and then had to drive back to Xela. Poor bugger.

In the evening we found a great little restaurant called 'Jose Pinguini' where there were four people playing marimba. It was like an oasis in the middle of a sea of noise. The music was great and the food was excellent. Unfortunately we did not have our camera with us so I can't post a photo.

Today (Sunday) we went to Santiago where we caught up with the family I stayed with while working at the hospitalito. We also caught up with Lyn who was my contact during the organisational phase. As it turns out, today was Jimmy's 13th birthday (he is the son of the family) and we had brought over Ozzie gifts for him and others in the family. There were heaps of people there and one hell of a spread so we had a great time. We felt very special to have been invited to the celebration.

At the moment we are back in Panajachel having a red in the lounge of our hotel planning what we will do tomorrow (apart from getting some washing done). And on Tuesday we travel to Antigua to continue the adventure.




This traffic jam took us an hour and a half to get through Sololá.



Having breakfast on the shore of Lake Atitlan with three volcanoes in the background.



Lunch at Henry's house for Jimmy's 13th birthday.



This is Henry. It is the only photo I have of him smiling!



On the lancha (ferry, boat, whatever) heading back to Panajachel from Santiago.

Location:Panajachel